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Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

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Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#91

Post by mrheosuper »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #51
mrheosuper wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The refresh rate of eink is kind of...muddy. It depends on temperature and target contrast. With the right waveform and voltage, you can push it pretty far(like 30hz+). The thing is, Eink's waveform is kind of secret afaik, everyone has different tuning.

As I understand it going faster typically skips steps that are necessary for maintenance of the panel. Fine for a while but if you don't periodically run a "proper" cycle the panel could eventually be permanently damaged.

Yeah, those panels are quite delicate, so they need a "maintainence" waveform(full refresh/flashing) for every now and then, to wiggle those stuck droplets.

Also when pushing for high refresh rate, you may need to use higher voltage, to make the droplets rise/fall faster. But sometime, those droplets are driven too hard and kind of stuck forever, so yeah, that's a trade off.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#92

Post by cubefox »

toast0 wrote: post #67
cubefox wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting case of a display being off actually indicating something ("loss of power") which can't be replicated with a bistable screen. On the other hand, you probably don't want that glow of an active screen all the time. Status LEDs are annoying enough.

> That's an interesting case of a display being off actually indicating something ("loss of power") which can't be replicated with a bistable screen. My kindles usually show a dead battery graphic when I get back to them after a long time away... With enough power storage and the right trigger, this could be done.

Yeah with a battery you can change the screen to "dead battery" when the battery is almost dead.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#93

Post by fc417fc802 »

gamblor956 wrote: post #79
fc417fc802 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it going faster typically skips steps that are necessary for maintenance of the panel. Fine for a while but if you don't periodically run a "proper" cycle the panel could eventually be permanently damaged.

It's not that those steps are necessary to prevent damage, it's that those steps were traditionally necessary to maintain calibration of the individual cell states. Also...the first several generations used really slow graphics processors based on the premise that use cases didn't require fast refreshing. eInk mostly fixed the calibration issue years ago before the first eink monitors came out, and most eink products…

> It's not that those steps are necessary to prevent damage,

It is my understanding (but I'm not even remotely an expert) that e-paper panels can suffer from permanent display burn due to the charged ink particles sticking to the glass. The stock waveforms take this into account and prevent it from happening. However I'm not entirely clear on the low level details or if this only applies to some subset of panels or etc.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#94

Post by fc417fc802 »

mrheosuper wrote: post #89
birdsongs wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly it. I was a firmware engineer at reMarkable making the latest tablets. We had some secret eink sauce (propriety waveforms) to get the high refresh rates and colour contrast without a full flashing screen reset, but even then you need to run longer maintenance refreshes occasionally. Pixels are just vertical columns of viscous fluid with charged ink particles. A waveform is just voltage changes over tim…

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I have a question, hope it's not too sensitive, how do you guy protect your secret waveform ? One with enough tool and determination can just measure voltage at pixel and reverse the whole thing, the chinese can do that in less than a week i bet.

I always wondered about this as well. Linux regularly gains reverse engineered drivers and it seems like the same would apply. I guess this is probably how the hobbyist projects that drive the panels faster came about? I assume it's the same as the NDAs surrounding SoCs where the entire exercise seemingly only exists to spite the general public while serving no practical purpose. (Well I suppose pandering to nontechnical management's insecurities is a sort of practical purpose but anyway.)

But I was too lazy and/or uninterested to attempt low level tinkering with e-paper myself and these days you can finally purchase some reasonably(ish) fast panels off the shelf.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#96

Post by esseph »

delecti wrote: post #60
tl wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not. Source: have a dock. Latest firmware installed from deck. And because the current Steam controller is a recent release, I had to try a whole mess of third party controllers before settling on PS5 controllers because everything else I tried had Bluetooth pairing issues / disconnects as you approached four controllers. SteamDeck as a handheld is great plus or minus a few nits baked onto the power / battery…

CEC support was added in to the Dock in May 2024 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200?emclan=10358... Bluetooth wake made available for LCD Decks in September 2025 (it was already available in OLED models) https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/4983336... I will say that the Deck has less than stellar bluetooth reception in my experience too. I settled on an 8bitdo controller because my XBox…

It's a Bluetooth problem in general.

If you have 2 or more controllers, you're often better off going with wifi dongles.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#97

Post by prashnts »

mrheosuper wrote: post #89
birdsongs wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly it. I was a firmware engineer at reMarkable making the latest tablets. We had some secret eink sauce (propriety waveforms) to get the high refresh rates and colour contrast without a full flashing screen reset, but even then you need to run longer maintenance refreshes occasionally. Pixels are just vertical columns of viscous fluid with charged ink particles. A waveform is just voltage changes over tim…

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I have a question, hope it's not too sensitive, how do you guy protect your secret waveform ? One with enough tool and determination can just measure voltage at pixel and reverse the whole thing, the chinese can do that in less than a week i bet.

Few years ago I did an educational project to extract waveforms from logic capture - it was doable [1]. But this approach may have limits on newer faster FPGA based controllers.

[1]: https://github.com/prashnts/betty-epd/blob/master/notebooks/...

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#98

Post by halJordan »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #47
RataNova wrote: post #9

I wish more hardware companies treated these kinds of optional add-ons as something the community can run with instead of either productizing them badly or locking them away completely...

If we can’t extract all the value, no one can.

But unironically lol. Eventually there will be a snap back. But probably not our generation

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#99

Post by ZiiS »

oliver66677 wrote: post #71
RataNova wrote: post #9

I wish more hardware companies treated these kinds of optional add-ons as something the community can run with instead of either productizing them badly or locking them away completely...

they don't expect steam machine to sell so they don't care..

Whilst the price is disappointing ; it is also sold-out.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#100

Post by mrheosuper »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #94
mrheosuper wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I have a question, hope it's not too sensitive, how do you guy protect your secret waveform ? One with enough tool and determination can just measure voltage at pixel and reverse the whole thing, the chinese can do that in less than a week i bet.

I always wondered about this as well. Linux regularly gains reverse engineered drivers and it seems like the same would apply. I guess this is probably how the hobbyist projects that drive the panels faster came about? I assume it's the same as the NDAs surrounding SoCs where the entire exercise seemingly only exists to spite the general public while serving no practical purpose. (Well I suppose pandering to nontechn…

1 approach i can think of is having the waveform flashed in factory. On supported controller, you can reflash the stock Waveform with yours.

But still, that does not prevent one from measuring the voltage directly at pixel.

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